Tag Archives: Deborah Ng

Many of our hosts have expressed an interest in learning how to book notable, big-named guests. BlogTalkRadio Insider, the show that goes behind the seens to interview the folks who make BlogTalkRadio tick, is discussing this very topic. Today at 4:00 EDT, popular talk show host Bob “Mr. Media” Andelman will join Shaun Daily and I to discuss his methods for landing interviews with Billy Bob Thornton, Kirk Douglas, Joey Lawrence, Cheryl Hines and many others.

Next week, film critic (and self-proclaimed movie addict) Betty Jo Tucker will come on to tell us about her success with booking guests such as Cloris Leachman, Debbie Reynolds, Fred Willard, Barry Bostwick and so many others.

If you ever wondered how our featured hosts land interviews with their famous guests, tune in to BlogTalkRadio Insider this afternoon and next week to find out. The chat room will be open, so come with your questions! We look forward to seeing you there!

If you’re new to BlogTalkRadio, you no doubt have already visited the BlogTalkRadio Learning Center, with its useful tips and screencasts. Did you know there are also a couple of shows you can listen to that will help you get started?

BlogTalkRadio 101

The first, BlogTalkRadio 101 is hosted by Nikki Starr. Nikki answers all of your questions about BlogTalkRadio, especially those that have to do with getting started. Each week, Nikki takes calls, answer questions from chat and touch on issues having to do with equipment, switchboard, chatrooms and the legalities of using music for your show.

No question is too small or too silly and Nikki answers in a thoughtful, easy to understand manner. If anything about BlogTalkRadio confuses you, or if you just have a question, stop by. You’ll be happy you did!

BlogTalkRadio 101 airs every Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. EDT, but don’t worry if you missed the live eppy, you can also catch the archived episodes on demand.

BlogTalkRadio Insider

BlogTalkRadio Insider goes inside BlogTalkRadio and brings you interviews with the folks who work all our behind the scenes magic. Co-hosted by TV Talk’s Shaun Daily and BlogTalkRadio’s Community Manager, Deborah Ng, Insider interviews a member of the BlogTalkRadio team and one of our hosts each week. Learn what it’s like to work for our tech or host services department, or about the day in the live of a BTR staffer, or tune in to find out our hosts’ favorite equipment or traffic tips.

BlogTalkRadio Insider airs Thursdays at 4:00 p.m. EDT, and again, all episodes are available on demand for later listening.

Easton Ellsworth has poured himself some java, powered up his MacBook and popped on his headset in preparation for what promises to be a history-making podcast.

Less than one hour from now – at 12 p.m. ET – the U.S. director for Blog Action Day 2008 will kick off the Talkathon for Poverty Relief, BlogTalkRadio’s 12-hour special to help take BlogActionDay.org’s poverty-relief conversation to all four corners of the earth.

Leading bloggers around the world – including Paul Chaney, president of the International Blogger and New Media Association, Liz Strauss, founder of SOBCon (Biz School for Blogging), Chris Garrett, co-author of ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, and social-media guru Beth Kanter – are scheduled to appear as guests on the United Nations Millennium Campaign-supported program, along with other notables.

At press time, more than 11,000 bloggers were signed up to participate in Blog Action Day.

“I’m thrilled that so many bloggers are combining forces to make this an impactful event,” says Easton. “And thanks to BlogTalkRadio, even more participants will be able to act locally, speak globally and change the conversation about poverty relief.”

(Don’t mention it, Mr. Director.)

Blog Action Day was launched last year when two bloggers – Collis Ta’eed of Sydney, Australia, and Leo Babauta of Guam – asked, “What would happen if all the bloggers of the world united for a single cause?”

What did happen during the U.N.-backed “Blog Action Day 2007: The Environment” was more than 20,000 bloggers offering ways to solve hundreds of environmental crises.

BlogActionDay.org estimates that some 12 million people worldwide will read about the event on October 15 – many of whom are also expected to tune into and/or call into the talkathon.

During the talkathon, the Blog Action Day editorial team will select the best participating blogs from around the globe to be cited live on-air. Those bloggers whose work is read will have one hour to call into the talkathon to claim prizes donated by event sponsors.

Bloggers who wish to participate in Blog Action Day 2008 can register for free at blogactionday.org.

In the meantime, let’s show Eastson some of that famous BlogTalkRadio love by posting comments below in support of his Herculean effort!

Better yet, the tenth person to post a comment here gets a prize from one of our Blog Action Day sponsers. (You can post as many comments as you like, by the way, but you’ll still only be counted as one person. To claim your prize, email our community manager, Deborah Ng at deborahng@blogtalkradio.com after posting.)

Monday’s blog post about using descriptive paragraphs to bring in listeners was well received. Folks even sent quite a few emails and several comments asking me to expand on the descriptive paragraph topic and give tips and examples. Before I do, let’s talk a little about Search Engine Optimization or SEO.

SEO is the art of using popular phrases and keywords to bring in traffic. As a professional blogger, I hate keywords and phrases. I find many of them to be unnatural. As a radio show host, you want to use as many of them as possible in your show description. Let’s say you’re interviewing George Clooney. Lots of people search for information about George Clooney every day, he is your keyword. If you can name him two or three times in your paragraph without it sounding too silly, by all means do so. But once is still good.

In fact if you want to look for what people are searching for, and create shows around those popular topics, you can do so by using Yahoo Buzz, Google Trends and even keyword tools such as Overture.

But I digress…

If you’re interviewing George Clooney for your show mentioning his name will be good enough to bring in many listeners, but don’t stop there. Why are you interviewing George Clooney? Is he promoting a film or charity project? Will he be discussing a political event or giving his point of view? You’ll certainly want to put this information in your description as well. Now you won’t be just drawing in Clooney fans you’ll be piquing the interest of movie buffs, charity supporters or those with an interest in politics.

“George Clooney will be a guest on the Deborah Ng show this evening where he will discuss why he supports Barack Obama in the upcoming Presidential election. Listeners are invited to call in or chat.”

Already you have three important key phrases: “George Clooney”, “Barack Obama” and “presidential election.” Also notice I mentioned how listeners can call in and chat? That makes it even more interesting. Lots of people want to ask questions of George Clooney, all the more reason to come by. Now potential listeners know they can look forward to hearing George Clooney answer questions from real people.

Ok, so you don’t have a famous special guest. That doesn’t mean your show isn’t interesting. There are still ways to hype your segment and get people to come in and listen.

“D.J. Deb plays the best music from the hairbands of the 70’s and 80’s. Tune in to hear some blasts from the past from Poison, Motley Crue, Judas Priest and more. Have a special request? Send it in early to DJDeb@notarealemailaddress.com and I’ll get it on the air for you.”

The above paragraph tells you the host isn’t just playing music. She’s playing a specific type of music. By including names of some of the bands on the playlist she’s appealing to fans of this genre and those artists. Plus people searching for these bands might come across this link and stop to listen. It appeals even more to listeners as now they can even request a favorite song – who doesn’t like to hear his name called out on the air?

I was asked if there’s a particular word count. There isn’t. You don’t want to make the description too wordy nor do you want it to be so vague it doesn’t tell the reader anything. A paragraph or two is fine as long as you mention any special guests, the show’s topic, and if anything special is happening. Will you be taking calls? Will there be a chat? Are you going to sing? Include it all in there. Give people a reason to stop by. What would make you want to come by and listen?